Brookfield, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brookfield, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Brookfield lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Brookfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brookfield — the short answer
Brookfield, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 18K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5b is Brookfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brookfield's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brookfield
Each reading below is measured for Brookfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrookfield runs about 192 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBrookfield sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Brookfield is in
Brookfield sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brookfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Waukesha County.
What Grows in Brookfield
Every plant below cleared Brookfield's own zone 5b and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brookfield?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Brookfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brookfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PRECISION CABLE ASSEMBLIES INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ELMBROOK SCHOOL DISTBrownfields · 1800 ft
- First Student Inc # 20082Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SCHOOL DISTRICT OF ELMBROOKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ASCENSION MEDICAL GROUP - ELMBROOK MEDICAL ARTS CENTERBrownfields · 1900 ft
- HEALTHSTAT - ELMBROOK SCHOOLS FAMILY HEALTH AND WELLNESS CENTERBrownfields · 1900 ft
- WK-07/20E/15-0234Nitrate · 1900 ft
- MAILWAUKEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BROOKFIELD BEACON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- LINNAN CONST & ENG INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- City Of BrookfieldUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- MOBIL STATION #05E2LUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brookfield's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Brookfield.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brookfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brookfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brookfield, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 359 sites within ~10 miles of Brookfield. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Brookfield
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brookfield average
Your land is one point inside Brookfield
Everything above resolves to Brookfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Brookfield Average
Brookfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Brookfield
- ●One soil character for all of Brookfield
- ●Frost dates read at Brookfield's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brookfield's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brookfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brookfield, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brookfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brookfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brookfield average
How we know this about Brookfield
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Brookfield’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Brookfield
When does frost risk typically end in Brookfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brookfield typically lands around Apr 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 6.
When is the first frost in Brookfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brookfield typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brookfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brookfield sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 10, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brookfield?
The federal record around Brookfield runs heavier than most — 5,732 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,713), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Brookfield?
From about Sep 24 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brookfield's scale — its 5b band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brookfield's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Brookfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brookfield's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 17,505 acres it covers and 5,732 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brookfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brookfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 24 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,732 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brookfield, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brookfield's boundary and the 17,505 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brookfield's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brookfield's 17,505 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Waukesha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Waukesha County
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Waukesha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brookfield's 17,505 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brookfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,505 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Brookfield-wide figureread your own land →